TWO football fans have been banned from attending matches anywhere in the UK after separate court appearances.
William Greenhill, 42, admitted assaulting a steward at a match between Rangers and Inverness Caledonian Thistle while Alistair Moffat, 18, was convicted of culpable and reckless conduct after a smoke bomb was set off during a fixture between Rangers and Motherwell.
Glasgow Sheriff Court heard that Greenhill, from Fife, was drunk at the match on October 31, 2012. He was asked to leave by a steward but retaliated by shouting and swearing at the man before punching him on the face.
Moffat, from Cumbernauld, was convicted at the same court for setting off a smoke bomb in the corner of Ibrox where away fans were situated during the match on September 26, 2012. He was arrested on February 8 this year.
Greenhill was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and Moffat was told to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work. Both will be banned from attending any matches in the UK for two years.
Stephen Ferguson, Football Liaison Prosecutor for the West of Scotland, said: "Setting off smoke bombs or any pyrotechnics at a football match is very foolish and potentially dangerous.
"Such irresponsible behaviour at football matches, and in fact anywhere, will not be tolerated and police and prosecutors are resolute in their efforts to identify perpetrators of such offences, even weeks afterwards, and ensure they are brought to justice."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article